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LORD BACON 



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BY 



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Lord Macaulay. 



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NEW YORK: 
CLABK & MlTNAEB, PtTBLISHEBS, 

771 Broadway. 

1886. 

A 






A Text-Book on Rhetoric; 

Supplementing the Development of the Science wi t h 
Exhaustive Practice in Composition. 

A Course of Practical Lessons Adapted for use in Higk Schools and 
Academies, and in the Lower Classes of Colleges. 

BY 

BRAINERD KELLOGG, A.M., 

Professor of the English Language and Literature in the Brooklyn 

Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, and one of the author* of 

Reed & KeUogg's " Graded Lessons in English" 

and "Higher Lessons in English." 



In preparing this work upon Rhetoric, the author's aim has been to 
write a practical text-book for High Schools, Academies, and the lower 
classes of Colleges, based upon the science rather than an exhaustive 
treatise upon the science itself. 

This work has grown up out of the belief that the rhetoric which 
the pupil needs is not that which lodges finally in the memory, but that 
which has worked its way down into his tongue and fingers, enabling 
him to speak and write the better for having studied it. The author 
believes that the aim of the study should be to put the pupil in posses- 
sion of an art, and that this can be done not by forcing the science into 
him through eye and ear, but by drawing it out of him, in products, 
through tongue and pen. Hence all explanations 6i principles are fol- 
lowed by exhaustive practice in Composition — to this everything is made 
tributary. 



" Kellogg's Rhetoric is evidently the 
fruit of scholarship and large experience. 
The author has collected his own mate- 
rials, and disposed of them with the skill 
of a master; his statements are precise, 
lucid, and sufficiently copious. Nothing 
is sacrificed to show ; the book is intended 
for use, and the abundance of examples 
will constitute one of its chief merits in 
the eyes of the thorough teacher."— Prof. 
A. S. Cook, John's Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md. 



"This is just the work to take the 
place of the much-stilted 'Sentential 
Analysis * that is being waded through to 
little purpose by the Grammar and High 
School pupils of our country. This work 
not only teaches the discipline of analyz- 
ing thought, but leads the student to 
feel that it is his thought that is being 
dealt with, dissected, and unfolded, to 
efficient expression."— Prof. G. S. Albee, 
Prest. of State Normal School, Qshkosh, 
Wis. 



276 pages, 12mo, attractively bound in cloth. 



CLARK & MAYNARD, Publishers, New York. 



ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES.— No. 61. 



Lord bacon 



AN ESSAY 



BY 



V 



LOED MAOATJLAT, 



(ABRIDGED.) 




Lord Bacon. 



^.c^Y OF CO?JS£ 

c Jul 21 i 



With an Introduction and Notes 
By ALBERT F. BLAISDELL, 

AUTHOR OF "STUDY OF ENGLISH CLASSICS," ANNOTATED EDITIONS OF 
" CHRISTMAS CAROL," " SKETCH-BOOK," " MEMORY QUOTA- 
TIONS," "SHAKESPEARE SPEAKER," ETC., ETC. 



NEW YORK : 

Clark & Maynard, Publishers, 
771 Broadway and 67 & 69 Ninth Street. 



3^ 



<n 



A Complete Course in the Study of English. 



Spelling, Language, Grammar, Composition, Literature. 

Reed's Word Lessons — A Complete Speller, 

Reed & Kellogg's Graded Lessons in English. 

Reed & Kellogg's Higher Lessons in English. 
Kellogg's Text-Book on Rhetoric. 

Kellogg's Text-Book on English Literature. 



In the preparation of this series the authors have had one object 
clearly in view — to so develop the study of the English language as to 
present a complete, progressive course, from the Spelling-Book to the 
study of English Literature. The troublesome contradictions which 
arise in using books arranged by different authors on these subjects, and 
which require much time for explanation in the school-room, will be 
avoided by the use of the above " Complete Course." 

Teachers are earnestly invited to examine these books. 

Clark & Maynard, Publishers, 

771 Broadway, New York* 



Copyright, 1886, bt Clark & Maynard 



LIFE OF MACAULAY. 

Thomas Babington Macaulay, the great historian of England, was 
born at Rothley, near Leicester, in 1800, and was named Thomas Bab- 
ington after his uncle. Macaulay's grandfather was a Scotch minister, 
and his father, Zachary, after having spent some time in Jamaica, 
returned to England, and joined Wilberforce and Clarkson in their 
efforts to abolish slavery in the British possessions. Macaulay was 
educated at Bristol and at Cambridge, where hegained great distinction, 
and twice won medals for his poems. He was also a member of the 
Union Debating Society, a famous club where young politicians tried 
their skill in the discussion of the affairs of State. He took his degree 
of M.A. in 1825, was called to the bar in 1826, and contributed exten- 
sively to Knight's Quarterly Magazine, in which his first literary efforts 
appeared, including among others the ballads of "The Spanish Ar- 
mada " and " The Battle of Ivry." In 1825 he contributed to the Edin- 
burgh Beview his celebrated article on Milton, and this was succeeded 
by numerous others on various themes, historical, political, and literary, 
which were afterward collected and published separately. 

Macaulay was a member of Parliament first for Colne, then for Leeds, 
and took part in the great discussions connected with the Reform Bill 
of 1832. In return for his services to his party, he was sent to India in 
1834 as a member of the Council, and while there wrote his famous 
essays on Lord Clive and Warren Hastings. In 1839 Macaulay returned 
to England, was elected member for Edinburgh, and, during the eight 
years of his connection with that city, held successively the offices of 
Secretary at War and Paymaster-General of the Forces. In 1842 he gave 
to the world his spirited " Lays of Ancient Rome." In 1847he displeased 
his Edinburgh supporters, and in a pet they rejected him ; but in 1852 
they re-elected him of their own accord, and in this way endeavored to 
atone for the past. He devoted the interval between these two dates to 
his History of England, the first two volumes of which were published 
in 1848, two others making their appearance in 1855. They form a mag- 
nificent fragment of historical writing, embracing a period of little more 
than twelve years, from the accession of James II. to the Peace of Rys- 
wick, in 1697. A fifth volume, compiled from the papers which he left 

3 



4 LIFE OF MACAULAY. 

behind, and bringing the work down to the death of William III., 
was published posthumously in 1859. He retired from Parliament in 
1856, owing to failing health, and in the following year he was created 
a baron in consideration of his great literary merit. In 1859 he died 
suddenly of disease of the heart, and was buried in Westminster 
Abbey. 

Lord Macaulay excelled as a poet and essayist, but he is chiefly illus- 
trious as a historian. In the opening chapter of his History of England 
the author announces his intention to write a history from the accession 
of James II. down to a time within the memory of men still living. Its 
success was very great. History was no longer dry and uninviting, for 
Macaulay had become a painter as well as a chronicler. The events of 
the past are depicted in such fresh and striking coloring that they have 
all the interest of absolute novelty. We have life-like portraits of the 
great men of the age, landscapes and street scenes, spirit-stirring de- 
scriptions of insurrections and trials and sieges, and graphic pictures 
of manners and customs. Macaulay had a very wonderful memory, of 
which he was proud, and he was able to collect and retain stores of in- 
formation from all manner of old books, papers, and parchments, and 
to make use of them in the production of his history. He is not always 
impartial, but sufficiently so to be considered the best authority on that 
portion of history with which he deals. 

Macaulay's personal appearance was never better described than in 
two sentences of Praed's Introduction to Knight's Quarterly Magazine: 
" There comes up a short manly figure, marvelously upright, with a bad 
neckcloth, and one hand in his waistcoat pocket. Of regular beauty 
he had little to boast ; but in faces where there is an expression of great 
power, or great good humor, or both, you do not regret its absence." 
This picture, in which every touch is correct, tells us all that there is 
to be told. He had a massive head, and features of a powerful and 
rugged cast ; but so constantly lighted up by every joyf ul and ennobling 
emotion, that it mattered little if, when absolutely quiescent, his face 
was rather homely than handsome. While conversing at table, no one 
thought him otherwise than good-looking; but when he rose he was 
seen to be short and stout in figure. He at all times sat and stood 
straight, full, and square. He dressed badly, but not cheaply. His 
clothes, though ill put on, were good, and his wardrobe was always 
enormously over-stocked. Macaulay was bored in the best of society, 
but took unceasing delight in children. He was the best of play- 
fellows unrivaled in the invention of games, and never weary of repeat- 
ing them. 



LOED MACAULAY. 1800-1859. 

"I always prophesied his greatness, from the first moment I saw 
him, then a very young and unknown man. There are no limits to his 
knowledge, on small subjects as well as great. He is like a book in 
breeches. " — Sydney Smith. 

11 His learning is prodigious ; and perhaps the chief defects of his 
composition arise from the exuberant riches of the stores from which 
they are drawn. When warmed in his subject, he is thoroughly in 
earnest, and his language, in consequence, goes direct to the heart." — 
Alison. 



11 Tht> exact style, the antitheses of ideas, the harmonious construc- 
tion, the artfully balanced paragraphs, the vigorous summaries, the 
regular sequence of thoughts, the frequent comparisons, the fine ar- 
rangement of the whole — not an idea or phrase of his writings in which 
the talent and the desire to explain does not shine forth." — Taine. 



11 Behind the external show and glittering vesture of his thoughts — 
beneath all his pomp of diction, aptness of illustration, splendor of 
imagery, and epigrammatic point and glare — a careful eye can easily 
discern the movement of a powerful and cultivated intellect, as it suc- 
cessively appears in the the well-trained logician, the discriminating 
critic, the comprehensive thinker, the practical and far-sighted states- 
man, and the student of universal literature." — E. 1\ Whipple. 



" *M acaulay's essays, are remarkable for their brilliant rhetorical 
power, their splendid tone of coloring, and their affluence of illustra- 
tion with a wide range of reading, and the most docile and retentive 
memory. He pours over his theme all the treasures of a richly-stored 
mind, and sheds light upon it from all quarters. He excels in the 
delineation of historical characters, and in the art of carrying his 
reader into a distant period and reproducing the past with the dis- 
tinctness of the present," — George S, Hillard, 



PKINCIPAL WORKS 

Macaulay excelled as a poet, essayist, orator, and historian. 

As a Poet: Of the first fruits of our author's poetical genius perhaps 
the most admired are The Battle of Ivry and The Spanish Aimnada. In 
1842, Macaulay gave to the world his Lays of Ancient Home, consisting 
of the soul-stirring narrations of " Horatius Codes," " Battle of Lake 
of Regillus," " Death of Virginia," and u Prophecy of Capys." 

As an Essayist : Macaulay' s essay on Milton, published in the Edin- 
burgh Review for Aug., 1825, was followed by essays, in all about forty, 
from the same pen for nearly a score of years, articles unsurpassed in 
varied and accurate learning, and in fervid eloquence and brilliancy, 
by any composition of the kind in the English language. The follow- 
ing is a list of the principal essays, with the years of publication, for 
the most part published in the Edinburgh Review : Milton, 1825 ; Machi- 
avelli, 1827; Dryden, 1828; History, 1828; Hallam's Constitutional 
History, 1828; Southey's Colloquies on Society, 1830 ; Montgomery's 
Poems, 1830 ; Southey's Edition of the The Bunyan's Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress, 1830; Moore's Byron, 1831 ; Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, 1831 ; 
Nugent's Hampden, 1831 ; Lord Burleigh and his Times, 1832 ; Mira- 
beau, 1832 ; War of the Spanish Succession, 1833 ; Horace Walpole, 
1833; Earl of Chatham, 1834; Sir James Mackintosh, 1835; Lord 
Bacon, 1837 ; Sir William Temple, 1838 ; Church and State, 1839 ; 
Lord Clive, 1840 ; Ptanke's History of the Popes, 1840 ; Comic Dra- 
matists of the Restoration, 1811; Lord Holland, 1841 ; Warren Hast- 
ings, Oct., 1841 ; Frederick the Great, 1842 ; Madame D'Arblay, 1843; 
Joseph Addison, 1843 ; Earl of Chatham,1844 ; Bnrere's Memoirs, 1844 ; 
Athenian Orators; Mitford's Greece, and Mill's Essay on Government. 

Biographies of Dr. Johnson, Bunyan, William Pitt, Goldsmith, and 
others, written for the eighth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica 
(1857-8), were among the latest productions of Macaulay's pen. 

As an Orator: Macaulay's speeches, parliamentary and miscellane- 
ous, number nearly one hundred, generally held to be some of the 
most eloquent and instructive ever delivered before the English 
public. 

As a Historian : In 1848 appeared the first two volumes of Macaulay's 



REFERENCES. 7 

History of England, "from the accession of King James the Second 
down to a time which is within the memory of men still living. " The 
third and fourth volumes were issued in 1855. The success of these 
volumes was great and immediate. A fifth volume, comprising all 
that he left ready for the press, and bringing the work down to the 
end of the year 1701, was published after his death. The great work 
thus remains a fragment of that originally projected. 



REFERENCES. 



For any desired information concerning Macaulay and his writings, 
consult, besides the ordinary reference books, Trevelyan's Life of 
Macaulay, a work of the deepest interest and full of all manner of 
details about the personal life of England's great historian. There is 
a little book by Adams, called Life Sketches of Macaulay, interesting 
from its anecdotes and sketches of Macaulay's personal career. E. 
P. Whipple has written one of the ablest criticisms of Macaulay's 
characteristics as an essayist which has ever been published. This 
article, from which we quote elsewhere, and for which Macaulay 
expressed great admiration, can be found in the first volume of Whip- 
ple's Essays. See also a scholarly essay by Peter Bayne ; consult very 
full articles in "Allibone," the " Encyclopedia Britannica," and the 
numerous references in Poole's Index to Teriodical Literature, 



INTRODUCTION. 

A careful study of Macaulay's essay on Lord Bacon will ac- 
complish two things for the young student. First, he will be- 
come familiar with one of the ablest essays of England's brilliant 
historian. Masterly in its general plan, scholarly in its faultless 
knowledge of the events and men of this wonderful era in Eng- 
lish history, attractive in its style as the page of fiction, this noble 
essay will serve to stimulate the student to read other works by 
the same great writer. 

Second, it must be a dull reader who is not stirred by reading 
this essay to extend his studies into the almost exhaustless fields of 
Elizabethan literature. Lord Bacon played a leading part in that 
age, which is characterized by features which cause it to stand 
alone in the literary history of the world. It was a period of the 
most intense intellectual activity. 

Hence, to get even a respectable understanding of the scope of 
this essay on Lord Bacon and some appreciation of 

" Those melodious bursts that fill 
The spacious times of great Elizabeth 
With sounds that echo still/' 

the student needs to lay a foundation deep and strong by a great 
deal of collateral reading. Such histories as Miss Strickland's 
Queen Elizabeth and Mr. J. R. Green's History of England will 
supply the most elementary historical facts, while Whipple's Liter- 
ature of the Elizabethan Age and Sped ding's elaborate biography 
of Bacon will prove valuable helps to an elementary consideration 
of the Baconian philosophy. 



LORD BACON. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

It is just fifty years ago that Lord Macaulay sent from India 
" an article of interminable length about Lord Bacon" to the edi- 
tor of the Edinburgh Review. The brilliant essayist had some 
misgivings about the length of his essay, but gave as an apology 
that the subject was of such vast extent that he could easily have 
made the article twice as long. Lord Jeffrey, to whom the manu- 
script was submitted for abridgment by the editor, said that "it 
would be worse than paring down the Pitt diamond to fit the old 
setting of a dowager's ring." 

In July, 1837, the article appeared entire, occupying one hundred 
and four pages of the Review ; and accompanied by an apology 
for its length in the shape of one of those editorial appeals to 
" the intelligent scholar" and " the best class of our readers" 
which never fail of success. " I never bestowed so much care," 
said Macaulay, in a private letter to the editor of the Review, " on 
anything that I have written. There is not a sentence in the lat- 
ter half of the article which has not been repeatedly recast. I 
have no expectation that the popularity of the article will bear any 
proportion to the trouble that I have expended on it. But the 
trouble has been so great a pleasure to me that I have already 
been greatly overpaid." 

This famous essay by Macaulay has been universally regarded 
as one of the best efforts of this great essayist. The young stu- 
dent will do well to read and reread it, not only to become familiar 
with it as a model of brilliant English, but also to a better under- 
standing of the great men and measures of the times of good 
Queen Bess. 

The length of the essay is such that the editor has been obliged 
to abridge it. The essay in its abridged form is complete in itself, 
and no part of Macaulay's language has been changed. 



10 LORD BACON. 

Introduction. — 1. There is scarcely any delusion which has 
a better claim to be indulgently treated than that under the 
influence of which a man ascribes every moral excellence to 
those who have left imperishable monuments of their genius. 
The causes of this error lie deep in the inmost recesses of 
human nature. We are all inclined to judge of others as we 
find them. Our estimate of a character always depends 
much on the manner in which that character affects our in- 
terests and passions. We find it difficult to think well of 

10 those by whom we are thwarted or depressed; and we are 
ready to admit every excuse for the vices of those w T ho are 
useful or agreeable to us. This is, we believe, one of those 
illusions to which the whole human race is subject, and which 
experience and reflection can only partially remove. Hence 
it is that the moral character of a man eminent in letters or 
in the fine arts is treated, often by contemporaries, almost by 
posterity, with extraordinary tenderness. The world derives 
pleasure and advantage from the performances of such a man. 
The number of those who suffer by his personal vices is small, 

20 even in his own time, when compared with the number of 
those to whom his talents are a source of gratification. In a 
few years all those whom he has injured disappear; but his 
works remain, and are a source of delight to millions. 

2. A great writer is the friend and benefactor of his read- 
ers; and they cannot but judge of him under the deluding in- 
fluence of friendship and gratitude. We all know how un- 
willing we are to admit the truth of any disgraceful story 
about a person whose society we like, and from whom we have 
received favors; how long we struggle against evidence, how 

30 fondly, when the facts cannot be disputed, we cling to the 
hope that there may be some explanation or some extenuating 
circumstance with which we are unacquainted. Just such is 
the feeling which a man of liberal education entertains towards 
the great minds of former ages. The debt which lie owes to 
them is incalculable. They have guided him to truth. They 
have filled his mind with noble and graceful images. They 
have stood by him in all vicissitudes— comforters in sorrow, 
nurses in sickness, companions in solitude. These friendships 



LORD BACON. 11 

are exposed to no danger from the occurrences by which other 
attachments are weakened or dissolved. Time glides on; for- 40 
tune is inconstant; tempers are soured; bonds which seemed 
indissoluble are daily sundered by interest, by emulation, or 
by caprice. But no such cause can affect the silent converse 
which we hold with the highest of human intellects. That 
placid intercourse is disturbed by no jealousies or resent- 
ments. These are the old friends who are never seen with 
new faces, who are the same in wealth and in poverty, in 
glory and in obscurity. With the dead there is no rivalry. 
In the dead there is no change. Plato is never sullen. Cer- 
vantes is never petulant. Demosthenes never comes unseason- so 
ably. Dante never stays too long. No difference of political 
opinion can alienate Cicero. 

3. Nothing, then, can be more natural than that a person 
endowed with sensibility and imagination should entertain a 
respectful and affectionate feeling towards those great men 
with whose minds he holds daily communion. Yet nothing 
can be more certain than that such men have not always de- 
served to be regarded with respect or affection. Some w r riters, 
whose works will continue to instruct and delight mankind to 
the remotest ages, have been placed in such situations that 60 
their actions and motives are as well known to us as the 
actions and motives of one human being can be known to 
another; and unhappily their conduct has not always been 
such as an impartial judge can contemplate with approbation. 
But the fanaticism of the devout worshiper of genius is proof 
against all evidence and all argument. The character of his 
idol is matter of faith; and the province of faith is not to be 
invaded by reason. He maintains his superstition with a cre- 
dulity as boundless and a zeal as unscrupulous as can be 
found in the most ardent partisans of the religious or political 70 
factions. The most decisive proofs are rejected; the plainest 
rules of morality are explained away; extensive and important 
portions of history are completely distorted. 

49. Plato, the famous Greek philosopher. Cervantes, the author of Don 
Quixote. Demosthenes, the distinguished Greek orator. Dante, the 
celebrated Italian poet. Cicero, the famous Roman orator, 



12 LORD BACON. 

Bacon's Early Career.— 1. It is hardly necessary to say that 
Francis Bacon was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who held 
the great seal of England during the first twenty years of the 
reign of Elizabeth. The fame of the father has been thrown 
into shade by that of the son. But Sir Nicholas was no or- 
dinary man. He belonged to a set of men whom it is easier 
80 to describe collectively than separately; whose minds were 
formed by one system of discipline; who belonged to one rank 
in society, to one university, to one party, to one sect, to one 
administration ; and who resembled each other so much in tal- 
ents, in opinions, in habits, in fortunes, that one character, 
we had almost said one life, may, to a considerable extent, 
serve for them all. 

2. The second wife of Sir Nicholas and mother of Francis 
Bacon, was Anne, one of the daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, 
a man of distinguished learning who had been tutor to Edward 

Q othe Sixth. Sir Anthony had paid considerable attention to 
the education of his daughters, and lived to see them all splen- 
didly and happily married. Their classical acquirements made 
them conspicuous even among the women of fashion of that age. 

3. Francis Bacon, the youngest son of Sir Nicholas, was born 
at York House, his father's residence in the Strand, on the 
twenty-second of January, 1561. The health of Francis was 
very delicate; and to this circumstance may be partly attrib- 
uted that gravity of carriage and that love of sedentary pursuits 
which distinguished him from other boys. Everybody knows 

IOO how much his premature readiness of wit and sobriety of de- 
portment amused the Queen, and how she used to call him 
her young Lord Keeper. We are told that, while still a mere 
child, he stole away from his playfellows to a vault, for the 
purpose of investigating the cause of a singular echo which he 
had observed there. It is certain that at only twelve, he 



79. Set of men.— In the complete text, Macaulay describes in detail the 
new and remarkable class of politicians that became a part of the history of 
this time. Sir Nicholas held high rank with any of his illustrious asso- 
ciates, " generally considered as ranking next to Burleigh. 1 ' 

95. Strand (London) —Houses were first built upon the Strand about 1353. 
Somerset and other palaces were re-erected 1549-1605. 

101. The Queen.— Elizabeth was queen of England at this time. She had 
been queen for three years, when Bacon was born. She died in 1G03. 



LORD BACON. 13 

busied himself with very ingenious speculations on the art of 
legerdemain. These are trifles. But the eminence which Ba- 
con afterwards attained makes them interesting. 

4. In the thirteenth year of his age he was entered at Trin- 
ity College, Cambridge. That celebrated school of learning no 
enjoyed the peculiar favor of the Lord Treasurer and the Lord 
Keeper, and acknowledged the advantages which it derived 
from their patronage in a public letter which bears date just a 
month after the admission of Francis Bacon. It has often 
been said that Bacon, while still at college, planned that great 
intellectual revolution with which his name is inseparably con- 
nected. The evidence on this subject, however, is hardly suf- 
ficient to prove what is in itself so improbable as that any defi- 
nite scheme of that kind should have been so early formed, 
even by so powerful and active a mind. But it is certain that, 120 
after a residence of three years at Cambridge, Bacon departed, 
carrying with him a profound contempt for the course of study 
pursued there, and a fixed conviction that the system of aca- 
demic education in England was radically vicious. 

5. In his sixteenth year he visited Paris, and resided there 
for some time, under the care of Sir Amias Paulet, Elizabeth's 
minister at the French court, and one of the ablest and most 
upright of the many valuable servants whom she employed. 
We have abundant proof that during his stay on the Continent 
he did not neglect literary and scientific pursuits. But his at- 130 
tention seems to have been chiefly directed to statistics and 
diplomacy. It was at this time that he wrote those ' ' Notes 
on the State of Europe" which are printed in his works. He 
studied the principles of the art of deciphering with great in- 
terest, and invented one cipher so ingenious that, many years 
later, he thought it deserving of a place in the u De Augmen- 
ts. " In February, 1580, while engaged in these pursuits, he 
received intelligence of the almost sudden death of his father, 
and instantly returned to England. 

Struggles for Legal Preferment. — 1. His prospects were 140 
greatly overcast by this event. He was most desirous to ob- 
tain a provision which might enable him to devote himself to 
literature and politics. He applied to the government; and it 



14 LORD BA.COX. 

seems strange that lie should have applied in vain. His wishes 
were moderate. His hereditary claims on the administration 
were great. He had himself been favorably noticed by the 
Qneen. His nncle was Prime Minister. His own talents were 
such as any minister might have been eager to enlist in the 
public service. But his solicitations were unsuccessful. The 

i 5 o truth is that the Cecils disliked him, and did all that they 
could decently do to keep him down. It has never been al- 
leged that Bacon had done anything to merit this dislike; nor 
is it at all probable that a man whose temper was naturally 
mild, whose manners were courteous, who, through life, nursed 
his fortunes with the utmost care, and who was fearful even 
to a fault of offending the powerful, would have given any just 
cause of displeasure to a kinsman who had the means of ren- 
dering him essential service and of doing him irreparable injury. 
2. The real explanation, we believe, is this: Robert Cecil, 

rto the Treasurer's second son, was younger by a few months than 
Bacon; he had been educated with the utmost care, had been in- 
itiated, while still a boy, in the mysteries of diplomacy and 
court-intrigue, and was just at this time about to be produced on 
the stage of public life. The wish nearest to Burleigh's heart 
was that his own greatness might descend to his favorite child. 
But even Burleigh's fatherly partiality could hardly prevent 
him from perceiving that Robert, with all his abilities and ac- 
quirements, was no match for his cousin Francis. This seems 
to us the only rational explanation of the Treasurer's conduct. 

I7 o 3. Whatever Burleigh's motives might be, his purpose was 
unalterable. The supplications which Francis addressed to 
his uncle and aunt were earnest, humble, and almost servile. 
He was the most promising and accomplished young man of 
his time. His father had been the brother-in-law, the most 
useful colleague, the nearest friend, of the Minister. But all 
this availed poor Francis nothing. He was forced, much 
against his will, to betake himself to the study of the law. He 

147. Prime Minister.— William Cecil, commonly known as Lord Burleigh 
(1520-1596), one of England's great statesmen, was prime minister at this 
time. 

159. Robert Cecil (about 1550-1612), second son of Lord Burleigh, suc- 
ceeded his father as prime minister. He was a statesman of immense en- 
ergj T and far-reaching sagacity. 



LORD BACOK". 15 

was admitted to Gray's Inn; and, during some years, he la- 
bored there in obscurity. 

4. What the extent of his legal attainments may have been l8 ° 
it is difficult to say. It was not hard for a man of his powers 

to acquire that very moderate portion of technical knowledge 
which, when joined to quickness, tact, wit, ingenuity, elo- 
quence, and knowledge of the world, is sufficient to raise an 
advocate to the highest professional eminence. The general 
opinion appears to have been that which was on one occasion 
expressed by Elizabeth: "Bacon," said she, " hath a great wit 
and much learning; but in law showeth to the uttermost of 
his knowledge, and is not deep." 

5. It is certain that no man in that age, or, indeed, during *9° 
the century and a half which followed, was better acquainted 
than Bacon with the philosophy of law. His technical knowl- 
edge was quite sufficient — with the help of his admirable tal- 
ents and of his insinuating address — to procure clients. He 
rose very rapidly into business, and soon entertained hopes of 
being called within the bar. He applied to Lord Burleigh for 
that purpose, but received a testy refusal. Of the grounds of 
that refusal we can, in some measure, judge by Bacon's an- 
swer, which is still extant. It seems that the old lord, whose 
temper, age, and gout had by no means altered for the better, 200 
and who loved to mark his dislike of the showy, quick-witted 
young men of the rising generation, took this opportunity to 
read Francis a very sharp lecture on his vanity and want of 
respect for his betters. Francis returned a most submissive 
reply, thanked the Treasurer for the admonition, and promised 

to profit by it. Strangers, meanwhile, were less unjust to the 
young barrister than his nearest kinsman had been. 

6. In his twenty-sixth year he became a bencher of his Inn; 
and two years later he was appointed Lent reader. At length, 

in 1590, he obtained for the first time some show of favor 210 
from the court. He was sworn in Queen's Counsel extraordi- 
nary. But this mark of honor was not accompanied by any 
pecuniary emolument. He continued, therefore, to solicit his 

178. Gray's Inn.— The name given to one of the four celebrated law- 
colleges in London. 



16 LORD BACON. 

powerful relatives for some provision which might enable him 
to live without drudging at his profession. He bore, with a 
patience and serenity which, we fear, bordered on meanness, 
the morose humors of his uncle, and the sneering reflections 
which his cousin cast on speculative men, lost in philosophical 
dreams, and too wise to be capable of transacting public busi- 
220 ness. At length the Cecils were generous enough to procure 
for him the reversion of the registrarship of the Star Cham- 
ber. This was a lucrative place; but, as many years elapsed 
before it fell in, he was still under the necessity of laboring 
for his daily bread. 

7. In the Parliament which was called in 1593 he sat as 
member for the county of Middlesex, and soon attained emi- 
nence as a debater. It is easy to perceive from the scanty re- 
mains of his oratory that the same compactness of expression 
and richness of fancy which appear in his writings character- 

2 3 oized his speeches; and that his extensive acquaintance with 
literature and history enabled him to entertain his audience 
with a vast variety of illustrations and allusions which were 
generally happy and apposite, but which were probably not 
least pleasing to the taste of that age when they were such as 
would now be thought childish or pedantic. 

8. Ben Jonson, a most unexceptionable judge, has described 
Bacon's eloquence in words which, though often quoted, will 
bear to be quoted again: " No man ever spoke more neatly, 
more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less 

240 idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but 
consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough or 
look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he 
spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. 
No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of 
every man that heard him was lest he should make an end. " 

Steps towards Political Success.— 1. Bacon tried to play 
a very difficult game in politics. He wished to be at once a 

222, Star Chamber.— The council-chamber of the Old Palace at West- 
minster, London, built by Henry VIII. This chamber was so called from 
the stars upon the ceiling. Here was the court where every punishment but 
death could be inflicted. 

236. Ben Jonson (1573-1G37).— An illustrious dramatist, one of the most 
learned men of his time. 



LORD BACON. 17 

favorite at court and popular with the multitude. If any 
man could have succeeded in this attempt, a man of talents so 
rare, of judgment so prematurely ripe, of temper so calm, and 250 
of manner so plausible, might have been expected to succeed. 
Nor, indeed, did he wholly fail. Once, however, he indulged 
in a burst of patriotism which caused him a long and bitter 
remorse, and which he never ventured to repeat. The court 
asked for large subsidies and for speedy payment. The re- 
mains of Bacon's speech breathe all the spirit of the Long Par- 
liament. "The gentlemen," said he, "must sell their plate, 
and the farmers their brass pots ere this will be paid; and for 
us, we are here to search the wounds of the realm, and not to 
skim them over. The dangers are these: first, we shall breed 260 
discontent and endanger her majesty's safety, which must con- 
sist more in the love of the people than their wealth. Second- 
ly, this being granted in this sort, other princes hereafter will 
look for the like; so that we shall put an evil precedent on 
ourselves and our posterity; and in histories, it is to be ob- 
served, of all nations the English are not to be subject, base, 
or taxable." 

2. The Queen and her ministers resented this outbreak of 
public spirit in the highest manner. Indeed, many an honest 
member of the House of Commons had, for a much smaller 2?0 
matter, been sent to the Tower by the proud and hot-blooded 
Tudors. The young patriot condescended to make the most 
abject apologies. He adjured the Lord Treasurer to show some 
favor to his poor servant and ally. He bemoaned himself to 
the Lord Keeper in a letter which may keep in countenance 
the most unmanly of the epistles which Cicero wrote during 
his banishment. The lesson was not thrown away. Bacon 
never offended in the same manner again. 

3. He was now satisfied that he had little to hope from the 
patronage of those powerful kinsmen whom he had solicited 3 8o 
during twelve years with such meek pertinacity; and he began 



256. Long Parliament.— The Parliament memorable as the '"Long 
Parliament" met on Nov. 3, 1640. 

272. Tudors.- The House of Tudor ruled England from the accession of 
Henry VII. to the death of Elizabeth 0*85- 1603). 



18 LORD BACON. 

to look towards a different quarter. Among the courtiers of 
Elizabeth had lately appeared a new favorite — young, noble, 
wealthy, accomplished, eloquent, brave, generous, aspiring; a 
favorite who had obtained from the gray-headed queen such 
marks of regard as she had scarce vouchsafed to Leicester in 
the season of the passions; who was at once the ornament of 
the palace and the idol of the city; who was the common pa- 
tron of men of letters and of men of the sword. The calm 

2go prudence which had enabled Burleigh to shape his course 
through so many dangers, and the vast experience which he 
had acquired in dealing with two generations of colleagues and 
rivals, seemed scarcely sufficient to support him in this new 
competition; and Robert Cecil sickened with fear and envy as 
he contemplated the rising fame and influence of Essex. 

4. Nothing in the political conduct of Essex entitles him to 
esteem; and the pity with which we regard his early and terri- 
ble end is diminished by the consideration that he put to haz- 
ard the lives and fortunes of his most attached friends, and 

300 endeavored to throw the whole country into confusion, for 
objects purely personal. Still, it is impossible not to be deeply 
interested for a man so brave, high-spirited, and generous; for 
a man who, while he conducted himself towards his sovereign 
with a boldness such as was then found in no other subject, 
conducted himself towards his dependents with a delicacy such 
as has rarely been found in any other patron. Unlike the vul- 
gar herd of benefactors, he desired to inspire, not gratitude, 
but affection. He tried to make those whom he befriended 
feel towards him as towards an equal. His mind, ardent, sus- 

3IO ceptible, naturally disposed to admiration of all that is great 
and beautiful, was fascinated by the genius and the accom- 
plishments of Bacon. A close friendship was soon formed be- 
tween them — a friendship destined to have a dark, a mournful, 
a shameful end. 

286. Leicester — The Earl of Leicester (1531-1588). The famous favorite 
courtier of Queen Elizabeth. The romantic career of this great but wicked 
man is most skillfully woven into Scott's historical novel called Kenilworth. 

295. Essex — The Earl of Essex (1567-1601) became a favorite of Queen 
Elizabeth after the death of Leicester. The foolhardy career of this able 
but rash man is merely outlined by Macaulay. Read the hjstories of this 
time for details. Essex was beheaded in 1G01. 



LORD BACON. 19 

5. In 1594 the office of Attorney-General became vacant, and 
Bacon hoped to obtain it. Essex made his friend's cause his 
own, sued, expostulated, promised, threatened — but all in vain. 
It is probable that the dislike felt by the Cecils for Bacon had 
been increased by the connection which he had lately formed 
with the Earl. 330 

When the office of Attorney-General was filled up, the Earl 
pressed the Queen to make Bacon Solicitor-General, and, on 
this occasion, the old Lord Treasurer professed himself not un- 
favorable to his nephew's pretensions. But, after a contest 
which lasted more than a year and a half, and in which Essex, 
to use his own words, " spent all his power, might, authority, 
and amity," the place was given to another. Essex felt this 
disappointment keenly, but found consolation in the most mu- 
nificent and delicate liberality. He presented Bacon with an 
estate worth near two thousand pounds, situated at Twicken- 330 
ham; and this, as Bacon owned many years after, "with so 
kind and noble circumstances, as the manner was worth more 
than the matter." 

6. It was soon after these events that Bacon first appeared 
before the public as a writer. Early in 1597 he published a 
small volume of essays, which was afterwards enlarged by 
successive additions to many times its original bulk. This lit- 
tle work was, as it well deserved to be, exceedingly popular. 
It was reprinted in a few months ; it was translated into Latin, 
French, and Italian; and it seems to have at once established 340 
the literary reputation of its author. But, though Bacon's 
reputation rose, his fortunes were still depressed. He was in 
great pecuniary difficulties; and, on one occasion, was arrested 
in the street at the suit of a goldsmith for a debt of three hun- 
dred pounds. 

Betrayal of Essex. — 1. The kindness of Essex was in the 



336. Small volume of essays.— The first edition of the Essays was pub- 
lished in 1597. at the time when Shakespeare was doing his greatest work. 
They were only ten in number, but Bacon subsequently added to these, 
making fifty-eight essays in the edition published in 1625, the year before his 
death. The word essay has changed its application somewhat since the 
days of Bacon. The word then bore its original sense of a slight suggestive 
sketch, whereas it is now commonly employed to denote an elaborate and 
finished composition. 



20 LORD BACON. 

mean time indefatigable. In 1596 he sailed on his memorable 
expedition to the coast of Spain. At the very moment of his 
embarkation, he wrote to several of his friends, commending 

350 to them, during his own absence, the interests of Bacon. He 
returned, after performing the most brilliant military exploit 
that was achieved on the Continent by English arms during 
the long interval which elapsed between the battle of Agin- 
court and that of Blenheim. His valor, his talents, his hu- 
mane and generous disposition, had made him the idol of his 
countrymen and had extorted praise from the enemies whom 
he had conquered. He had always been proud and head- 
strong; and his splendid success seems to have rendered his 
faults more offensive than ever. But to his friend Francis he 

360 was still the same. 

2. The fortunes of Essex had now reached their height and 
began to decline. He possessed, indeed, all the qualities 
which raise men to greatness rapidly. But he had neither 
the virtues nor the vices which enable men to retain greatness 
long. His frankness, his keen sensibility to insult and injus- 
tice, were by no means agreeable to a sovereign naturally im- 
patient of opposition, and accustomed, during forty years, to 
the most extravagant flattery and the most abject submission. 
The daring and contemptuous manner in which he bade defi- 

370 ance to his enemies excited their deadly hatred. His adminis- 
tration in Ireland was unfortunate, and in many respects 
highly blamable. Though his brilliant courage and his im- 
petuous activity fitted him admirably for such enterprises as 
that of Cadiz, he did not possess the caution, patience, and 
resolution necessary for the conduct of a protracted war, in 
which difficulties were to be gradually surmounted, in which 
much discomfort was to be endured, and in which few splen- 
did exploits could be achieved. For the civil duties of his 

353. Agincourt. — A village in France celebrated for a bloody battle be- 
tween the English and French, Oct. 25, 1415. 

354. Blenheim.— A village in Bavaria memorable on account of Marl- 
borough's great victory over the French, Aug. 13, 1704. 

374. Cadiz.— A powerful fleet was fitted out in 1596 to wage war in Spain. 
Essex commanded the land forces; Lord Effingham the navy. Cadiz was 
taken chiefly through the impetuous valor of Essex, who disregarded the 
more cautious counsels of Effingham. 



LORD BACON. 21 

high place he was still less qualified. Though eloquent and 
accomplished, he was in no sense a statesman. The multitude, ; 
indeed, still continued to regard even his faults with fondness; 
but the Court had ceased to give him credit even for the merit 
which he really possessed. The person on whom, during the 
decline of his influence, he chiefly depended, to whom he con- 
fided his perplexities, whose advice he solicited, whose inter- 
cession he employed, was his friend Bacon. The lamentable 
truth must be told. This friend, so loved, so trusted, bore a 
principal part in ruining the Earl's fortunes, in shedding his 
blood, and in blackening his memory. 

3. But let us be just to Bacon. We believe that to the last 
he had no wish to injure Essex. Nay, we believe that he 
sincerely exerted himself to serve Essex, as long as he thought 
that he could serve Essex without injuring himself. The ad- 
vice which he gave to his noble benefactor was generally most 
judicious. He did all in his power to dissuade the Earl from 
accepting the government of Ireland. "For," says he, "I 
did as plainly see his overthrow, chained as it were by destiny 
to that journey, as it is possible for a man to ground a judg- 
ment upon future contingents." The prediction was accom- 
plished. Essex returned in disgrace. 

4. Bacon attempted to mediate between his friend and the 
Queen; and, we believe, honestly employed all his address for 
that purpose. But the task which he had undertaken was too 
difficult, delicate, and perilous, even for so wary and dexterous 
an agent. He had to manage two spirits equally proud, re- 
sentful, and ungovernable. At Essex House, he had to calm 
the rage of a young hero incensed by multiplied wrongs and 
humiliations, and then to pass to Whitehall for the purpose 
of soothing the peevishness of a sovereign whose temper, never 
very gentle, had been rendered morbidly irritable by age, by 
declining health, and by the long habit of listening to flattery 
and exacting implicit obedience. It is hard to serve two 
masters. Situated as Bacon was, it was scarcely possible for 

408. Whitehall (London), built before the middle of the 13th century. It 
was purchased by Henry VIII. of Cardinal Wolsey in 1530. At this period it 
became the residence of the court. Queen Elizabeth, who died at Richmond 
in 1603, was brought thence to Whitehall, by water, in a grand procession. 



22 LORD BACON. 

him to shape his course so as not to give one or both of his 
employers reason to complain. For a time he acted as fairly 
as, in circumstances so embarrassing, could reasonably be ex- 
pected. At length he found that, while he was trying to prop 
the fortunes of another, he was in danger of shaking his own. 
He had disobliged both the parties whom he wished to recon- 

4 2 °tile. Essex thought him wanting in zeal as a friend; Eliza- 
beth thought him wanting in duty as a subject. The Earl 
looked on him as a spy of the Queen; the Queen as a creature 
of the Earl. The reconciliation which he had labored to effect 
appeared utterly hopeless. A thousand signs — legible to eyes 
far less keen than his — announced that the fall of his patron 
was at hand^. He shaped his course accordingly. 

5. When Essex was brought before the council to answer 
for his conduct in Ireland, Bacon, after a faint attempt to ex- 
cuse himself from taking part against his friend, submitted 

430 himself to the Queen's pleasure, and appeared at the bar in 
support of the charges. But a darker scene was behind. The 
unhappy young nobleman, made reckless by despair, ventured 
on a rash and criminal enterprise, which rendered him liable 
to the highest penalties of the law. . What course was Bacon 
to take ? This w^s ojie of those conjunctures which show 
what men are. To a high-minded man, wealth, power, court 
favor, even personal safety, would have appeared of no ac- 
count when opposed to friendship, gratitude, and honor. 
Bacon did not even preserve neutrality. He appeared as 

440 counsel for the prosecution. In that situation he did not con- 
fine himself to what would have been amply sufficient to pro- 
cure a verdict. He employed all his wit, his rhetoric, and his 
learning, not to insure a conviction— for the circumstances 
were such that a conviction was inevitable — but to deprive the 
unhappy prisoner of all those excuses which, though legally 
of no value, yet tended to diminish the moral guilt of the 
crime, and which, therefore, though they could not justify the 
peers in pronouncing an acquittal, might incline the Queen to 
grant a pardon. 

450 6. Essex was convicted. Bacon made no effort to save him, 
though the Queen's feelings were such that he might have 



LORD BACON - . 23 

pleaded his benefactor's cause, possibly with success, certainly 
without any serious danger to himself. The unhappy noble- 
man was executed. His fate excited strong, perhaps un- 
reasonable, feelings of compassion and indignation. The 
Queen was received by the citizens of London with gloomy 
looks and faint acclamations. She thought it expedient to 
publish a vindication of her late proceedings. The faithless 
friend who had assisted in taking the Earl's life was now em- 
ployed to murder the Earl's fame. The Queen had seen some 
of Bacon's writings and had been pleased with them. He was 
accordingly selected to write "A Declaration of the Practices 
and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert, Earl of 
Essex," which was printed by authority. 

7. The real explanation of all this is perfectly obvious; and 
nothing but a partiality amounting to a ruling passion could 
cause anybody to miss it. \J£tie moral qualities of Bacon were 
not of a high order. We do not say that he was a bad man. 
He was not inhuman or tyrannical. He bore with meekness 
his high civil honors, and the far higher honors gained by his 
intellect. He was very seldom, if ever, provoked into treating 
any person with malignity and insolence. No man more read- 
ily held up the left cheek to those who had smitten the right. 
No man was more expert at the soft answer which turneth 
away wrath. He was never charged, by any accuser entitled 
to the smallest credit, with licentious habits. His even temp- 
er, his flowing courtesy, the general respectability of his de- 
meanor, made a favorable impression on those who saw him 
in situations which do not severely try the principles. His 
faults were — we write it with pain — coldness of heart and 
meanness of spirit. He seems to have been incapable of feel- 
ing strong affection, of facing great dangers, of making great 
sacrifices. His desires were set on things below. . Wealth, 
precedence, titles, patronage, the mace, the seals, the coronet, 
large houses, fair gardens, rich manors, massy services of plate, 
gay hangings, curious cabinets, had as great attractions for 
him as for any of the courtiers who dropped on their knees 
in the dirt when Elizabeth passed by, and then hastened home 



24 LOED BACOK. 

to write to the King of Scots that her Grace seemed to be 

490 breaking fast. For these objects he had stooped to every- 
thing, and endured everything. 

8. For these he joined, and for these he forsook, Lord Es- 
sex. He continued to plead his patron's cause with the Queen 
as long as he thought that by pleading that cause he might 
serve himself. Nay, he went farther; for his feelings, though 
not warm, were kind : he pleaded that cause as long as he 
thought that he could plead it without injury to himself. But 
when it became evident that Essex was going headlong to his 
ruin, Bacon began to tremble for his own fortunes. What he 

500 had to fear would not indeed have been very alarming to a 
man of lofty character. It was not death. It was not im- 
prisonment. It was the loss of court favor. It was the being 
left behind by others in the career of ambition. It was the 
having leisure to finish the " Instauratio Magna." The Queen 
looked coldly on him. The courtiers began to consider him 
as a marked man. He determined to change his line of con- 
duct, and to proceed in a new course with so much vigor as to 
make up for lost time. When once he had determined to act 
against his friend, knowing himself to be suspected, he acted 

510 with more zeal than would have been necessary or justifiable 
if he had been employed against a stranger. He exerted his 
professional talents to shed the Earl's blood, and his literary 
talents to blacken the Earl's memory. 

It is certain that his conduct excited at the time great and 
general disapprobation. While Elizabeth lived, indeed, this 
disapprobation, though deeply felt, was not loudly expressed?] 
Bacon gains the Royal Favor. — 1. But a great change was 
at hand. The health of the Queen had long been decaying; 
and the operation of age and disease was now assisted by 

520 acute mental suffering. The pitiable melancholy of her last 
days has generally been ascribed to her fond regret for Essex. 

489. King of Scots.— The son of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, 
who succeeded Queen Elizabeth on her death, in 1603, as' King James I. of 
England. He was king from 1603 to 1625. 

520. Mental Suffering.— The student will be pleased to consult the 
various histories of this time for interesting details of the last days of Queen 
Elizabeth. This subject is fully discussed in Miss Strickland's "Queens of 
England. " 



LORD BACON. 25 

But we are disposed to attribute her dejection partly to physi- 
cal causes, and partly to the conduct of her courtiers and 
ministers. They did all in their power to conceal from her 
the intrigues which they were carrying on at the Court of 
Scotland. But her keen sagacity was not to be so deceived. 
She did not know the whole; but she knew that she was sur- 
rounded by men who were impatient for that new world which 
was to begin at her death, who had never been attached to 
her by affection, and who were now but very slightly attached 
to her by interest. Prostration and flattery could not conceal 
from her the cruel truth, that those whom she had trusted 
and promoted had never loved her, and were fast ceasing to 
fear her. Unable to avenge herself, and too proud to com- 
plain, she suffered sorrow and resentment to prey on her 
heart, till, after a long career of power, prosperity, and glory, 
she died, sick and weary of the world. 

2. James mounted the throne; and Bacon employed all his 
address to obtain for himself a share of the favor of his new 
master. This was no difficult task. The faults of James, 
both as a man and as a prince, were numerous; but insensi- 
bility to the claims of genius and learning was not among 
them. He was, indeed, made up of two men — a witty, well- 
read scholar, who wrote, disputed, and harangued, and a 
nervous, driveling idiot, who acted. 

Bacon was favorably received at court; and soon found 
that his chance of promotion was not diminished by the death 
of the Queen. He was solicitous to be knighted for two rea- 
sons which are somewhat amusing. The King had already 
dubbed half London, and Bacon found himself the only un- 
titled person in his mess at Gray's Inn. This was not very 
agreeable to him. He had also, to quote his own words, 
' ' found an alderman's daughter, a handsome maiden, to 
his liking." On both these grounds, he begged his cousin 
Robert Cecil, "if it might please his good lordship," to use 
his interest in his behalf. The application was successful. 
Bacon was one of three hundred gentlemen who, on the 
coronation-day, received the honor — if it is to be so called — 
of knighthood. The handsome maiden, a daughter of Alder- 



55C 



26 LORD BACON. 

5 6o man Barnham, soon after consented to become Sir Francis's 
lady. 

3. Under the reign of James, Bacon grew rapidly in fortune 
and favor. In 1604 he was appointed King's Counsel, with a 
fee of forty pounds a year; and a pension of sixty pounds a 
year was settled upon him. In 1607 he became Solicitor- 
General; in 1612 Attorney-General. He continued to distin- 
guish himself in Parliament, particularly by his exertions in 
favor of one excellent measure on which the King's heart was 
set — the union of England and Scotland. It was not difficult 

570 for such an intellect to discover many irresistible arguments 
in favor of such a scheme. 

4. While actively engaged in the House of Commons and in 
the courts of law, he still found leisure for letters and philos- 
ophy. The noble treatise on the k ' Advancement of Learning, " 
which at a later period was expanded into the ' ' De Augmen- 
ts, " appeared in 1605. The "Wisdom of the Ancients," a 
work which, if it had proceeded from any other writer, would 
have been considered as a masterpiece of wit and learning, but 
which adds little to the fame of Bacon, was printed in 1609. 

s8o In the mean time the " Novum Organum" was slowly proceed- 
ing. Several distinguished men of learning had been per- 
mitted to see sketches or detached portions of that extra- 
ordinary book; and, though they were not generally disposed 
to admit the soundness of the author's views, they spoke with 
the greatest admiration of his genius. In 1612 a new edition 
of the "Essays" appeared, with additions surpassing the 
original collection both in bulk and quality. Nor did these 
pursuits distract Bacon's attention from a work the most ar- 
duous, the most glorious, and the most useful that even his 

sqo mighty powers could have achieved — "the reducing and re- 
compiling," to use his own phrase, " of the laws of England. 1 ' 
As a Corrupt Judge.— 1. Unhappily, he was at that very 
time employed in perverting those laws to the vilest purposes 
of tyranny. When Oliver St. John was brought before the 
Star Chamber for maintaining that the King had no right to 
levy benevolences, and was, for his manly and constitutional 
conduct, sentenced to imprisonment during the royal pleasure. 



LORD BACON. 27 

and to a fine of £5000, Bacon appeared as counsel for the 
prosecution. About the same time he was deeply engaged in 
a still more disgraceful transaction. The difference between 6o ° 
the soaring angel and the creeping snake was but a type of 
the difference between Bacon the philosopher and Bacon the 
Attorney-General; Bacon seeking for truth, and Bacon seeking 
for the Seals. Those who survey only one half of his charac- 
ter may speak of him with unmixed admiration, or with un- 
mixed contempt. \But those only judge of him correctly who 
take in at one view Bacon in speculation and Bacon in action. 
They will have no difficulty in comprehending how one and 
the same man should have been far before his age and far be- 
hind it; in one line the boldest and most useful of innovators, 610 
in another line the most obstinate champion of the foulest 
abusesTf In his library, all his rare powers were under the 
guidance of an honest ambition, of an enlarged philanthropy, 
of a sincere love of truth. There no temptation drew him 
away from the right course. Thomas Aquinas could pay no 
fees. Duns Scotus could confer no peerages. 

2. Far different was the situation of the great philosopher 
when he came forth - from his study and his laboratory to min- 
gle with the crowd which filled the galleries of Whitehall. In 
all that crowd there was no man equally qualified to render 620 
great and lasting services to mankind. But in all that crowd 
there was not a heart more set on things which no man ought 
to suffer to be necessary to his happiness; on things which 
can often be obtained only by the sacrifice of integrity and 
honor. To be the leader of the human race in the career of 
improvement, to found on the ruins of ancient intellectual 
dynasties a more prosperous and a more enduring empire, to 
be revered by the latest generations as the most illustrious 
among the benefactors of mankind — all this was within his 
reach. But all this availed him nothing while some quibbling 630 
special pleader was promoted before him to the bench; while 
some heavy country gentleman took precedence of him by vir- 

615. Thomas Aquinas. — One of the most influential of the scholastic 
theologians, born in 1224. He was a most voluminous writer on theological 
subjects. 

616. Duns Scotus, one of the most famous and influential of the scho- 
lastics of the 14th century. 



28 LORD BACON. 

tue of a purchased coronet; while some buffoon, versed in all 
the latest scandal of the court, could draw a louder laugh 
from James. 

3. During a long course of years, Bacon's unworthy ambi- 
tion was crowned with success. His sagacity early enabled 
him to perceive who was likely to become the most powerful 
man in the kingdom. He probably knew the King's mind be- 

640 fore it was known to the King himself, and attached himself 
to Villiers, while the less discerning crowd of courtiers con- 
tinued to fawn on Somerset. The influence of the younger 
favorite became greater daily. The descent of Somerset had 
been a gradual and almost imperceptible lapse. It now be- 
came a headlong fall; and Villiers, left without a competitor, 
rapidly rose to a height of power such as no subject since 
Wolsey had attained. 

4. To do the new favorite justice, he early exerted his influ- 
ence in behalf of his illustrious friend. In March, 1617, Sir 

650 Francis was appointed keeper of the great seal. On the 
seventh of May, the first day of term, he rode in state to West- 
minster Hall, with the Lord Treasurer on his right hand, the 
Lord Privy Seal on his left, a long procession of students and 
ushers before him, and a crowd of peers, privy-councillors, 
and judges following in his train. Having entered his court, 
he addressed the splendid auditory in a grave and dignified 
speech, which proves how well he understood those judicial 
duties which he afterwards performed so ill. Even at that 
moment — the proudest moment of his life in the estimation of 

660 the vulgar, and, it may be, even in his own — he cast back a 
look of lingering affection towards those noble pursuits from 
which, as it seemed, he was about to be estranged. ' The 
depth of the three long vacations," said he, kk I would reserve 

641. Villiers.— George Villiers, a young man of handsome person, re- 
turned from his travels about the time the King was weary of his former 
favorite, Somerset. Villiers at once attracted the favorable notice of the 
King, and soon become established in the royal favor as the most servile 
minion. In the course of a few years. James created him Duke of Buck- 
ingham and loaded him with exorbitant honors. The career of this rash 
and insolent fa\ orite is fully described in the histories of this period. 

64^. Westminster Hall (London).— One of the most venerable remains of 
English architecture, first built by William Rufus in 1097 for a banqueting- 
hall. Of late years, many improvements and alterations have been made in 
this magnificent hall. 



LOSD BACOtf. 29 

in some measure free from business of estate, and for studies, 
arts, and sciences, to which of my own nature I am most in- 
clined." 

5. The years during which Bacon held the great seal were 
among the darkest and most shameful in English history. 
Everything at home and abroad was mismanaged. The waver- 
ing and cowardly policy of England furnished matter of ridi- 6 7 o 
cule to all the nations of Europe. The love of peace which 
James professed would, even when indulged to an impolitic 
excess, have been respectable if it had proceeded from tender- 
ness for his people. But the truth is that, while he had noth- 
ing to spare for the defense of the natural allies of England, 

he resorted without scruple to the most illegal and oppressive 
devices for the purpose of enabling Buckingham and Bucking- 
ham's relations to outshine the ancient aristocracy of the 
realm. Benevolences were exacted. Patents of monopoly 
were multiplied. All the resources which could have been 68o 
employed to replenish a beggared exchequer, at the close of a 
ruinous war, were put in motion during this season of igno- 
minious peace. 

6. The vices of the administration must be chiefly ascribed 
to the weakness of the King and to the levity and violence of 
the favorite. But it is impossible to acquit the Lord Keeper 
of all share in the guilt. For those odious patents, in partic- 
ular, which passed the great seal while it was in his charge, 
he must be held answerable. In the speech which he made 

on lirst taking his seat in his court, he had pledged himself to ^ 
discharge this important part of his functions with the great- 
est caution and impartiality. He had declared that he ' ' would 
walk in the light," "that men should see that no particular 
turn or end led him, but a general rule." 

In his judicial capacity his conduct was not less reprehen- 
sible. He suffered Buckingham to dictate many of his deci- 
sions. Bacon knew as well as any man that a judge who 
listens to private solicitations is a disgrace to his post. He 
had himself, before he was raised to the woolsack, represented 
this strongly to Villiers, then just entering on his career. 700 
"By no means," said Sir Francis, in a letter of advice ad- 



SO LORD BACON. 

dressed to the young courtier; "by no means be you per- 
suaded to interpose yourself, either by word or letter, in any 
cause depending in any court of justice, nor suffer any great 
man to do it where you can hinder it. If it should prevail, it 
perverts justice; but, if the judge be so just and of such cour- 
age as he ought to be, as not to be inclined thereby, yet it 
always leaves a taint of suspicion behind it." Yet he had not 
been Lord Keeper a month when Buckingham began to inter- 
7 iofere in Chancery suits; and Buckingham's interference was, 
as might have been expected, successful. 

7. "We do not defend Buckingham ; but what was his guilt 
to Bacon's ? Buckingham was young, ignorant, thoughtless, 
dizzy with the rapidity of his ascent and the height of his posi- 
tion. That he should be eager to serve his relations, his flat- 
terers, his mistresses, that he should not fully apprehend the 
immense importance of a pure administration of justice, that 
he should think more about those who were bound to him by 
private ties than about the public interest, all this was perfect- 

720 ly natural, and not altogether unpardonable. Those who in- 
trust a petulant, hot-blooded, ill-informed lad with power, are 
more to blame than he for the mischief which he may do with 
it. How could it be expected of a lively page, raised by a 
wild freak of fortune to the first influence in the empire, that 
he should have bestowed any serious thought on the principles 
which ought to guide judicial decisions? Bacon was the 
ablest public man then living in Europe. He was near sixty 
years old. He had thought much, and to good purpose, on 
the general principles of law. He had for many years borne 

730 a part daily in the administration of justice. It was impos- 
sible that a man with a tithe of his sagacity and experience 
should not have known that a judge who suffers friends or 
patrons to dictate his decrees violates the plainest rules of 
duty. In fact, as we have seen, he knew this well: he ex- 
pressed it admirably. Neither on this occasion nor on any 
other could his bad actions be attributed to any defect of the 
head. They sprang from quite a different cause. 

8. A man who stooped to render such services to others 
was not likely to be scrupulous as to the means by which he 



LOED BACOlSr. 31 

enriched himself. He and his dependents accepted large pres- 740 
ents from persons who were engaged in Chancery suits. The 
amount of the plunder which he collected in this way it is im- 
possible to estimate. There can be no doubt that he received 
very much more than was proved on his trial, though, it may 
be, less than was suspected by the public. His enemies stated 
his illicit gains at a hundred thousand pounds. But this was 
probably an exaggeration. 

It was long before the day of reckoning arrived. During 
the interval between the second and third parliaments of 
James, the nation was absolutely governed by the Crown. 750 
The flrospects of the Lord Keeper were bright and serene. 
His great place rendered the splendor of his talents even more 
conspicuous, and gave an additional charm to the serenity of 
his temper, the courtesy of his manners, and the eloquence of 
his conversation. The pillaged suitor might mutter. The 
austere Puritan patriot might, in his retreat, grieve that one 
on whom God had bestowed without measure all the abilities 
which qualify men to take the lead in great reforms should be 
found among the adherents of the worst abuses. But the 
murmurs of the suitor and the lamentation of the patriot had 7 6o 
scarcely any avenue to the ears of the powerful. The King, 
and the minister who was the King's master, smiled on their 
illustrious flatterer. The whole crowd of courtiers and nobles 
sought his favor with emulous eagerness. Men of wit and 
learning hailed with delight the elevation of one who had so 
signally shown that a man of profound learning and of bril- 
liant wit might understand, far better than any plodding 
dunce, the art of thriving in the world. 

Reaches the Zenith of his Fortunes. — 1. In the main, how- 
ever, Bacon's life, while he held the great seal, w T as, in out- 770 
ward appearance, most enviable. In London he lived with 
great dignity at York House, the venerable mansion of his 
father. Here it was that, in January, 1620, he celebrated his 

741. Chancery suits.— The Court of Chancery was instituted very early in 
English history. It had its origin in its desire to render justice complete and 
to moderate the vigor of other courts. The delays in chancery proceedings 
were long a fertile theme for legislative investigation, and the subject of 
much bitter satire and caustic wit. Dickens's novel called Bleak House is 
based upon the notorious delays in chancery suits. 



32 LORD BACON. 

entrance into his sixtieth year amidst a splendid circle of 
friends. He had then exchanged the appellation of Keeper 
for the higher title of Chancellor. Ben Jonson was one of the 
party, and wrote on the occasion some of the happiest of his 
rugged rhymes. All things, he tells us, seemed to smile about 
the old house — " the fire, the wine, the men." The spectacle 
780 of the accomplished host, after a life marked by no great dis- 
aster, entering on a green old age, in the enjoyment of riches, 
power, high honors, undiminished mental activity, and vast 
literary reputation, made a strong impression on the poet, if 
we may judge from those well-known lines: 

" England's high Chancellor, the destined heir. 
In his soft cradle, to his father's chair, 
Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full 
Out of their choicest and their whitest wool." 

In the intervals of rest which Bacon's political and judicial 
functions afforded, he was in the habit of retiring to Gorham- 
bury. At that place his business was literature, and his favor- 
ite amusement gardening, which in one of his most interest- 
ing Essays he calls ' ' the purest of human pleasures. " In his 

79° magnificent grounds he erected, at a cost of ten thousand 
pounds, a retreat to which he repaired when he wished to 
avoid all visitors, and to devote himself wholly to study. On 
such occasions, a few young men of distinguished talents were 
sometimes the companions of his retirement. 

2. In January, 1621, Bacon had reached the zenith of his 
fortunes. He had just published the " Novum Organum;" 
and that extraordinary book had drawn forth the warmest ex- 
pressions of admiration from the ablest men in Europe. He 
had obtained honors of a widely different kind, but perhaps 

800 not less valued by him. He had been created Baron Verulam. 
He had subsequently been raised to the higher dignity of Vis- 
count St. Albans. His patent was drawn in the most flatter- 
ing terms, and the Prince of Wales signed it as a witness. 
The ceremony of investiture was performed with great state at 
Theobald's, and Buckingham condescended to be one of the 
chief actors. Posterity has felt that the greatest of English 



LORD BACON. 33 

philosophers could derive no accession of dignity from any 
title which James could bestow, and, in defiance of the royal 
letters patent, has obstinately refused to degrade Francis Ba- 
con into Viscount St. Albans. 810 

3. In a few weeks was signally brought to the test the value 
of those objects for which Bacon had sullied his integrity, had 
resigned his independence, had violated the most sacred obli- 
gations of friendship and gratitude, had flattered the worth- 
less, had persecuted the innocent, had tampered with judges, 
had tortured prisoners, had plundered suitors, had wasted on 
paltry intrigues all the powers of the most exquisitely con- 
structed intellect that has ever been bestowed on any of the 
children of men. A sudden and terrible reverse was at hand. 

A Parliament had been summoned. After six years of silence 820 
the voice of the nation was again to be heard. Only three 
days after the pageant which was performed at Theobald's in 
honor of Bacon, the Houses met. 

4. Want of money had, as usual, induced the King to con- 
voke his Parliament. It may be doubted, however, whether, 
if he or his ministers had been at all aware of the state of pub- 
lic feeling, they would not have tried any expedient, or borne 
with any inconvenience, rather than have ventured to face 
the deputies of a justly exasperated nation. But they did 
not discern those times. 830 

The Parliament had no sooner met than the House of Com- 
mons proceeded, in a temperate and respectful, but most de- 
termined manner, to discuss the public grievances. Their 
first attacks were directed against those odious patents under 
cover of which Buckingham and his creatures had pillaged and 
oppressed the nation. The vigor with which these proceed- 
ings were conducted spread dismay through the court. It 
was some time before Bacon began to entertain any apprehen- 
sions. His talents and his address gave him great influence 
in the House, of which he had lately become a member, as in- 840 
deed they must have done in any assembly. In the House of 
Commons he had many personal friends and many warm ad- 
mirers. But at length, about six weeks after the meeting of 
Parliament, the storm burst. 



34 LORD BACON\ 

His Downfall.— 1. A committee of the Lower House had 
been appointed to inquire into the state of the courts of jus- 
tice. On the fifteenth of March the chairman of that com- 
mittee, Sir Robert Philips, member for Bath, reported that 
great abuses had been discovered. "The person," said he, 

850 ' ' against whom these things are alleged is no less than the 
Lord Chancellor, a man so endued with all parts, both of na- 
ture and art, as that I will say no more of him, being not able 
to say enough." Sir Robert then proceeded to state, in the 
most temperate manner, the nature of the charges. The evi- 
dence was overwhelming. Bacon's friends could only entreat 
the House to suspend its judgment, and to send up the case to 
the Lords, in a form less offensive than an impeachment. 

On the nineteenth of March the King sent a message to the 
Commons, expressing his deep regret that so eminent a person 

860 as the Chancellor should be suspected of misconduct. His 
Majesty declared that he had no wish to screen the guilty 
from justice, and proposed to appoint a new kind of tribunal, 
consisting of eighteen commissioners, who might be chosen 
from among the members of the two Houses, to investigate 
the matter. 

2. The Commons were not disposed to depart from their 
regular course of proceeding. On the same day they held a 
conference with the Lords, and delivered in the heads of the 
accusation against the Chancellor. At this conference Bacon 

8 7 o was not present. Overwhelmed with shame and remorse, and 
abandoned by all those in whom he had weakly put his trust, 
he had shut himself up in his chamber from the eyes of men. 
The dejection of his mind soon disordered his body. Buck- 
ingham, who visited him by the King's order, ' ' found his 
lordship very sick and heavy." It appears from a pathetic 
letter which the unhappy man addressed to the Peers on the 
day of the conference, that he neither expected nor wished to 
survive his disgrace. During several days he remained in his 
bed, refusing to see any human being. He passionately told 

880 his attendants to leave him, to forget him, never again to 
name his name, never to remember that there had been such 
a man in the world. In the mean time fresh instances of cor- 



LORD BACON. 35 

ruption were every day brought to the knowledge of his ac- 
cusers. The number of charges rapidly increased from two to 
twenty- three. The Lords entered on the investigation of the 
case with laudable alacrity. Some witnesses were examined 
at the bar of the House. A select committee was appointed 
to take the depositions of others; and the inquiry was rapidly 
proceeding, when, on the twenty-sixth of March, the King ad- 
journed the Parliament for three weeks. 890 

3. This measure revived Bacon's hopes. He made the most 
of his short respite. He attemped to work on the feeble mind 
of the King. He appealed to all the strongest feelings of 
James — to his fears, to his vanity, to his high notions of pre- 
rogative. Would the Solomon of the age commit so gross an 
error as to encourage the encroaching spirit of Parliaments ? 
Would God's anointed, accountable to God alone, pay homage 
to the clamorous multitude ? l ' Those, " exclaimed Bacon, ' ' who 
now strike at the chancellor will soon strike at the crown. I 
am the first sacrifice. I wish I may be the last." But all his 900 
eloquence and address were employed in vain. Indeed, we are 
firmly convinced that it was not in the King's power to save 
Bacon, without having recourse to measures which would have 
convulsed the realm. The crown had not sufficient influence 
over the Parliament to procure an acquittal in so clear a case 
of guilt. And to dissolve a Parliament which is universally 
allowed to have been one of the best Parliaments that ever sat, 
which had acted liberally and respectfully towards the Sov- 
ereign, and which enjoyed in the highest degree the favor of 
the people, only in order to stop a grave, temperate, and con- 910 
stitutional inquiry into the personal integrity of the first judge 
in the kingdom, would have been a measure more scandalous 
and absurd than any of those which were the ruin of the 
House of Stuart. Such a measure, while it would have been 
as fatal to the Chancellor's honor as a conviction, would have 
endangered the very existence of the monarchy. The King, 
acting by the advice of Williams, very properly refused to en- 
gage in a dangerous struggle with his people, for the purpose 
of saving from legal condemnation a minister whom it was 
impossible to save from dishonor. He advised Bacon to plead 929 



36 LORD BACON. 

guilty, and promised to do all in his power to mitigate the 
punishment. 

4. On the seventeenth of April the Houses reassembled, and 
the Lords resumed their inquiries into the abuses of the Court 
of Chancery. On the twenty-second, Bacon addressed to the 
Peers a letter, which the Prince of Wales condescended to de- 
liver. In this artful and pathetic composition, the Chancellor 
acknowledged his guilt in guarded and general terms, and, 
while acknowledging, endeavored to palliate it. This, how- 

930 ever, was not thought sufficient by his judges. They required 
a more particular confession, and sent him a copy of the 
charges. On the thirtieth, he delivered a paper in which he 
admitted, with few and unimportant reservations, the truth of 
the accusations brought against him, and threw himself en- 
tirely on the mercy of his peers. ' ' Upon advised considera- 
tion of the charges," said he, "descending into my own con- 
science, and calling my memory to account so far as I am 
able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of 
corruption, and do renounce all defence." 

940 5. The Lords came to a resolution that the Chancellor's con- 
fession appeared to be full and ingenuous, and sent a commit- 
tee to inquire of him whether it was really subscribed by him- 
self. The deputies, among whom was Southampton, the 
common friend, many years before, of Bacon and Essex, per- 
formed their duty w r ith great delicacy. Indeed the agonies of 
such a mind and the degradation of such a name might well 
have softened the most obdurate natures. "My lords," said 
Bacon, "it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your 
lordships to be merciful to a broken reed."* They withdrew T , 

950 and he again retired to his chamber in the deepest dejection. 
The next day, the sergeant-at-arms and the usher of the 
House of Lords came to conduct him to Westminster Hall, 
where sentence was to be pronounced. But they found him 
so feeble that he could not leave his bed; and this excuse for 

* These sad words of the fallen jurist and statesman will remind the young: 
Student of the sad farewell to all his greatness of Cardinal Wolsey, as depicted 
by Shakespeare in his grand play of ,l Henry VIII." 

The words are familiar: 

" Farewell! a Jong farewell, to all my greatness 1" etc. 



LORD BACOIST. 37 

his absence was readily accepted. In no quarter does there 
appear to have been the smallest desire to add to his humilia- 
tion. 

The sentence was, however, severe, the more severe, no 
doubt, because the Lords knew that it would not be executed; 
and that they had an excellent opportunity of exhibiting, at 960 
small cost, the inflexibility of their justice, and their abhor- 
rence of corruption. Bacon was condemned to pay a fine of 
forty thousand pounds, and to be imprisoned in the Tower 
during the King's pleasure. He was declared incapable of 
holding any office in the State or of sitting in Parliament ; and 
he was banished for life from the verge of the court. In such 
misery and shame ended that long career of worldly wisdom 
and worldly prosperity. 

His Last Days. — 1. The sentence of Bacon had scarcely been 
pronounced when it was mitigated. He was, indeed, sent to 97° 
the Tower. But this was merely a form. In two days he was 
set at liberty, and soon after he retired to Gorhambury. His 
fine was speedily released by the crown. He was next suffered 
to present himself at court; and at length, in 1624, the rest of 
his punishment was remitted. He was now at liberty to re- 
sume his seat in the House of Lords, and he was actually sum- 
moned to the next Parliament. But age, infirmity, and per- 
haps shame prevented him from attending. The government 
allowed him a pension of twelve hundred pounds a year; and 
his whole annual income is estimated at two thousand five 9 8 <> 
hundred pounds, a sum which was probably above the average 
income of a nobleman of that generation, and which was cer- 
tainly sufficient for comfort and even for splendor. Unhap- 
pily, Bacon was fond of display, and unused to pay minute 
attention to domestic affairs. He was not easily persuaded to 
give up any part of the magnificence to which he had been 
accustomed in the time of his power and prosperity. No pres- 
sure of distress could induce him to part with the woods of 

971. The Tower. — The ancient and familiar citadel of London. It stands 
in the oldest part of the metropolis. The Tower is memorable for the dis- 
tinguished persons who have been confined within its walls as prisoners of 
state. Since the restoration of Charles II. the crown jewels have been kept 
here on exhibition. 



38 LOBD BACOST. 

Gorhambury. "I will not," lie said, -'be stripped of my 
99 o feathers. " He traveled with so splendid an equipage and so 
large a retinue that Prince Charles, who once fell in with him 
on the road, exclaimed with surprise, " Well, do what we can, 
this man scorns to go out in snuff." This carelessness and 
ostentation reduced Bacon to frequent distress. He was un- 
der the necessity of parting with York House, aud of taking 
up his residence, during his visits to London, at his old cham- 
bers in Gray's Inn. He had other vexations, the exact nature 
of which is unknown. It is evident from his will that some 
part of his wife's conduct had greatly disturbed and irritated 
IOOO him. 

2. But, whatever might be his pecuniary difficulties or his 
conjugal discomforts, the powers of his intellect still remained 
undiminished. Those noble studies for which he had found 
leisure in the midst of professional drudgery and of courtly 
intrigues gave to this last sad stage of his life a dignity beyond 
what power or titles could bestow. Impeached, convicted, 
sentenced, driven with ignominy from the presence of his sov- 
ereign, shut out from the deliberations of his fellow-nobles, 
loaded with debt, branded with dishonor, sinking under the 

ioio weight of years, sorrows, and diseases, Bacon was Bacon still. 
"My conceit of his person," says Ben Jonson, very finely, 
"was never increased towards him by his place or honors; but 
I have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only 
proper to himself; in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, 
one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that 
had been in many ages. In his adversity I ever prayed that 
God would give him strength; for greatness he could not 
want." 

3. The services which Bacon rendered to letters during the 
I020 last five years of his life, amidst ten thousand distractions and 

vexations, increase the regret with which we think on the 
many years which he had wasted, to use the words of Sir 
Thomas Bodley , ' ' on such study as was not worthy of such a 
student." He commenced a "Digest of the Laws of England," 
a ' ' History of England under the Princes of the House of Tu- 
dor," a body of "Natural History," a "Philosophical Ro- 



LOUD BACOl^. 39 

mance. " He made extensive and valuable additions to his 
Essays. He published the inestimable Treatise " De Augmen- 
ts Scientiarum. " The very trifles with which he amused him- 
self in hours of pain and languor bore the mark of his mind. 1030 
The best collection of jests in the world is that which he dic- 
tated from memory, without referring to any book, on a day 
on which illness had rendered him incapable of serious study. 

4. The great apostle of experimental philosophy was des- 
tined to be its martyr. It had occurred to him that snow 
might be used with advantage for the purpose of preventing 
animal substances from putrefying. On a very cold day, 
early in the spring of the year 1626, he alighted from his 
coach near Highgate, in order to try the experiment. He 
went into a cottage, bought a fowl, and with his own hands 1040 
stuffed it with snow. While thus engaged he felt a sudden 
chill, and was soon so much indisposed that it was impossible 
for him to return to Gray's Inn. The Earl of Arundel, with 
whom he was well acquainted, had a house at Highgate. To 
that house Bacon was carried. The earl was absent; but the 
servants who were in charge of the place showed great respect 
and attention to the illustrious guest. Here, after an illness 

of about a week, he expired early on the morning of Easter- 
day, 1626. His mind appears to have retained its strength 
and liveliness to the end. He did not forget the fowl which 1050 
had caused his death. In the last letter that he ever wrote, 
with fingers which, as he said, could not steadily hold a pen, 
he did not omit to mention that the experiment of the snow 
had succeeded " excellently well." 

5. Our opinion of the moral character of this great man has 
already been sufficiently explained. Had his life been passed 
in literary retirement, he would, in all probability, have de- 
served to be considered, not only as a great philosopher, but 
as a worthy and good-natured member of society. But neither 
his principles nor his spirit were such as could be trusted when 1060 
strong temptations were to be resisted and serious dangers to 

be braved. 

In his will he expressed with singular brevity, energy, dig- 
nity, and pathos a mournful consciousness that his actions 



40 LORD BACON. 

had not been such as to entitle him to the esteem of those 
under whose observation his life had been passed, and, at the 
same time, a proud confidence that his writings had secured 
for him a high and permanent place among the benefactors of 
mankind. So at least we understand those striking words 

io 7 o which have been often quoted, but which we must quote once 
more: " For my name and memory, I leave it to men's chari- 
table speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next 
age." 

His confidence was just. From the day of his death his 
fame has been constantly and steadily progressive; and we 
have no doubt that his name will be named with reverence to 
the latest ages, and to the remotest ends of the civilized world. 
Examination of Bacon's Philosophy.— 1. The chief pecu- 
liarity of Bacon's philosophy seems to us to have been this, 

1080 that it aimed at things altogether different from those which 
his predecessors had proposed to themselves. This was his 
own opinion. He used means different from those used by 
other philosophers, because he wished to arrive at an end al- 
together different from theirs. 

What, then, was the end which Bacon proposed to himself ? 
It was, to use his own emphatic expression, u fruit." It was 
the multiplying of human enjoyments and the mitigating of 
human sufferings. It was "the relief of man's estate." This 
was the object of all his speculations in every department of 

io 9 o science, in natural philosophy, in legislation, in politics, in 
morals. Two words form the key of the Baconian doctrine, 
Utility and Progress. 

2. The ancient philosophy disdained to be useful, and was 
content to be stationary. It dealt largely in theories of moral 
perfection, which were so sublime that they never could be 
more than theories; in attempts to solve insoluble enigmas; in 
exhortations to the attainment of unattainable frames of mind. 
It could not condescend to the humble office of ministering to 
the comfort of human beings. 

1 100 The boast of the ancient philosophers was that their doc- 
trine formed the minds of men to a high degree of wisdom 
and virtue. This was, indeed, the only practical good which 



LORD BACON. 41 

the most celebrated of those teachers even pretended to effect; 
and, undoubtedly, if they had effected this, they would have 
deserved far higher praise than if they had discovered the 
most salutary medicines or constructed the most powerful ma- 
chines. But the truth is that, in those very matters in which 
alone they professed to do any good to mankind, in those very 
matters for the sake of which they neglected all the vulgar in- 
terests of mankind, they did nothing, or worse than nothing. IIIQ 
They promised what was impracticable; they despised what 
was practicable; they filled the world with long words and 
long beards; and they left it as wicked and as ignorant as they 
found it. 

3. Some people may think the object of the Baconian phi- 
losophy a low object; but they cannot deny that, high or low, 
it has been attained. They cannot deny that every year 
makes an addition to what Bacon called " fruit." They can- 
not deny that mankind have made, and are making, great and 
constant progress in the road which he pointed out to them. "20 
Was there any such progressive movement among the ancient 
philosophers ? After they had been declaiming eight hundred 
years, had they made the world better than when they began ? 
Our belief is that, among the philosophers themselves, instead 
of a progressive improvement, there was a progressive degen- 
eracy. 

Great and various as the powers of Bacon were, he owes his 
wide and durable fame chiefly to this, that all those powers 
received their direction from common-sense. His love of the 
vulgar useful, his strong sympathy with the popular notions "30 
of good and evil, and the openness with which he avowed that 
sympathy, are the secret of his influence. There was in his 
system no cant, no illusion. He had no anointing for broken 
bones, no fine theories deftnibus, no arguments to persuade 
men out of their senses. He knew that men, and philoso- 
phers as well as other men, do actually love life, health, com- 
fort, honor, security, the society of friends, and do actually 
dislike death, sickness, pain, poverty, disgrace, danger, separ- 
ation from those to whom they are attached. He knew that 
religion, though it often regulates and moderates these feel- "4° 



42 LORD BACONS 

ings, seldom eradicates them; nor did he think it desirable 
for mankind that they should be eradicated. 

4. We have sometimes thought that an amusing fiction 
might be written, in which a disciple of Epictetus and a dis- 
ciple of Bacon should be introduced as fellow-travelers. They 
come to a village where the small-pox has just begun to rage, 
and find houses shut up, intercourse suspended, the sick aban- 
doned, mothers weeping in terror over their children. The 
Stoic assures the dismayed population that there is nothing 

r 5° bad in the small-pox, and that to a wise man disease, deform, 
ity, death, the loss of friends, are not evils. The Baconian 
takes out a lancet and begins to vaccinate. They find a body 
of miners in great dismay. An explosion of noisome vapors 
has just killed many of those who were at work ; and the sur- 
vivors are afraid to venture into the cavern. The Stoic as- 
sures them that such an accident is nothing. The Baconian 
who has no such word at his command contents himself with 
devising a safety-lamp. They find a shipwrecked merchant 
wringing his hands on the shore. His vessel, with an inestima- 

i6oble cargo, has just gone down, and he is reduced in a moment 
from opulence to beggary. The Stoic exhorts him not to seek 
happiness in things which lie without himself, and repeats the 
whole chapter of Epictetus. The Baconian constructs a div- 
ing-bell, goes down in it, and returns with the most precious 
effects from the wreck, It would be easy to multiply illus- 
trations of the difference between the philosophy of thorns 
and the philosophy of fruit, the philosophy of words and the 
philosophy of works. 

5. The vulgar notion about Bacon we take to be this, that 
i 7 o he invented a new method of arriving at truth, which method 

is called Induction; and that he detected some fallacy in the 
syllogistic reasoning which had been in vogue before his time. 
This notion is about as well founded as that of the people who, 
in the Middle Ages, imagined that Virgil was a great conjurer. 
Many who are far too well informed to talk such extravagant 



1144. Epictetus.— A celebrated disciple of the Stoic philosophy. He lived 
a few years before the birth of Christ, 



LORD BACON. 43 

nonsense entertain what we think incorrect notions as to what 
Bacon really effected in this matter. 

The inductive method has been practiced ever since the be- 
ginning of the world by every human being. It is constantly 
practiced by the most ignorant clown, by the most thoughtless Il8 ° 
schoolboy, by the very child at the breast. That method 
leads the clown to the conclusion that if he sows barley he 
shall not reap wheat. By that method the schoolboy learns 
that a cloudy day is the best for catching trout. 

Not only is it not true that Bacon invented the inductive 
method, but it is not true that he was the first person who 
correctly analyzed that method and explained its uses. Aris- 
totle had long before pointed out the absurdity of supposing 
that syllogistic reasoning could ever conduct men to the dis- 
covery of any new principle; had shown that such discoveries "9° 
must be made by induction, and by induction alone; and had 
given the history of the inductive process, concisely indeed, 
but with great perspicuity and precision. 

6. Bacon was not, as we have already said, the inventor of 
the inductive method. He was not even the person who first 
analyzed the inductive method correctly, though he undoubt- 
edly analyzed it more minutely than any who preceded him. 
He was not the person who first showed that by the inductive 
method alone new truth could be discovered. But he was the 
person who first turned the minds of speculative men, long 1200 
occupied in verbal disputes, to the discovery of new and use- 
ful truth; and, by doing so, he at once gave to the inductive 
method an importance and dignity which had never before be- 
longed to it. He was not the maker of that road; he was not 
the discoverer of that road; he was not the person who first 
surveyed and mapped that road. But he was the person who 
first called the public attention to an inexhaustible mine of 
wealth which had been utterly neglected, and which was ac- 
cessible by that road alone. By doing so, he caused that road, 
which had previously been trodden only by peasants and hig- 1210 
glers, to be frequented by a higher class of travelers. 

7. To give to the human mind a direction which it shall re- 
tain for ages is the rare prerogative of a few imperial spirits. 



44 LOKD BACON. 

It cannot, therefore, be uninteresting to inquire what was the x 
moral and intellectual constitution which enabled Bacon to 
exercise so vast an influence on the world. 

In the temper of Bacon — w T e speak of Bacon the philosopher, 
not of Bacon the lawyer and politician — there was a singular 
union of audacity and sobriety. The true philosophical tem- 

1220 perament may, we think, be described in four words — much 
hope, little faith; a disposition to believe that anything, how- 
ever extraordinary, may be done; an indisposition to believe 
that anything extraordinary has been done. In these points 
the constitution of Bacon's mind seems to us to have been ab- 
solutely perfect. 

His Place in Literature. — 1. Closely connected with this 
peculiarity of Bacon's temper was a striking peculiarity of his 
understanding. With great minuteness of observation, he 
had an amplitude of comprehension such as has never yet been 

1230 vouchsafed to any other human being. The Essays contain 
abundant proofs that no nice feature of character, no pecul- 
iarity in the ordering of a house, a garden, or a court-masque, 
could escape the notice of one whose mind was capable of 
taking in the whole world of knowledge. His understanding 
resembled the tent which the fairy gave to Prince Ahmed. 
Fold it, and it seemed a toy for the hand of a lady. Spread 
it, and the armies of powerful sultans might repose beneath 
its shade. 

In keenness of observation he has been equaled, though 

1240 perhaps never surpassed. But the largeness of his mind was 
all his own. " I have taken," said Bacon, in a letter written, 
when he was only thirty-one, to his uncle Lord Burleigh — " I 
have taken all knowledge be my province." In any other 
young man, indeed in any other man, this would have been a 
ridiculous flight of presumption. There have been thousands 
of better mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, physicians, 
botanists, mineralogists, than Bacon. No man would go to 
Bacon's works to learn any particular science or art, any more 

1235. Prince Ahmed.— The reference is to one of the famous stories of 
the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, in which Prince Ahmed has the 
noted tent given him by the faiiy Paribaiiou. 



LORD BACON. 45 

than he would go to a twelve-inch globe in order to find his 
. way from Kennington turnpike to Clapham Common. The I2 s° 
art which Bacon taught was the art of inventing arts. The 
knowledge in which Bacon excelled all men was a knowledge 
of the mutual relations of all departments of knowledge. 

2. The mode in which he communicated his thoughts was 
peculiar to him. He had no touch of that disputatious temper 
which he often censured in his predecessors. He effected a 
vast intellectual revolution in opposition to a vast mass of 
prejudices; yet he never engaged in any controversy: nay, we 
cannot at present recollect, in all his philosophical works, a 
single passage of a controversial character. All those works "60 
might with propriety have been put into the form which he 
adopted in the work entitled u Cogitata et visa:" Franciscus 
Baconus sic cogitavit. These are thoughts w T hich have oc- 
curred to me: weigh them well; and take them or leave them. 

Borgia said of the famous expedition of Charles the Eighth, 
that the French had conquered Italy not with steel, but with 
chalk; for that the only exploit which they had found neces- 
sary for the purpose of taking military occupation of any 
place had been to mark the doors of the houses where they 
meant to quarter. Bacon often quoted this saying, and loved 1270 
to apply it to the victories of his own intellect. His philoso- 
phy, he said, came as a guest, not as an enemy. She found no 
difficulty in gaining admittance, without a contest, into every 
understanding fitted, by its structure and by its capacity, to re- 
ceive her. In all this we think that he acted most judiciously; 
first, because, as he has himself remarked, the difference be- 
tween his school and other schools was a difference so funda- 
mental that there was hardly any common ground on which 
a controversial battle could be fought; and, secondly, because 
his mind, eminently observant, pre-eminently discursive and 1280 
capacious, was, we conceive, neither formed by nature nor 
disciplined by habit for dialectical combat. 



1265. Charles the Eighth.— King of France (1483-1498); succeeded his 
father, Louis XI., on the throne of France. The most important incident 
of his career was his conquest of Naples in 1495, to the throne of which he 
believed he had a claim. ' 



46 LORD BACON. 

3. Though Bacon did not arm his philosophy with the 
weapons of logic, he adorned her profusely with all the richest 
decorations of rhetoric. His eloquence, though not untainted 
with the vicious taste of his age, would alone have entitled 
him to a high rank in literature. He had a wonderful talent 
for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.. In wit, 
if by wit be meant the power of perceiving analogies between 

I2 9<> things which appear to have nothing in common, he never had 
an equal. Indeed, he possessed this faculty, or rather this 
faculty possessed him. 

These, however, were freaks in which his ingenuity now and 
then wantoned, with scarcely any other object than to astonish 
and amuse. But it occasionally happened that, when he was 
engaged in grave and profound investigations, his wit obtained 
the mastery over all his other faculties, and led him into ab- 
surdities into which no dull man could possibly have fallen. 
We cannot wish that Bacon's wit had been less luxuriant. 

1300 For, to say nothing of the pleasure which it affords, it was in 
the vast majority of cases employed for the purpose of making 
obscure truth plain, of making repulsive truth attractive, of 
fixing in the mind forever truth which might otherwise have 
left but a transient impression. 

4. The poetical faculty was powerful in Bacon's mind, but 
not, like his wit, so powerful as occasionally to usurp the 
place of his reason, and to tyrannize over the whole man. No 
imagination was ever at once so strong and so thoroughly sub- 
jugated. It never stirred but at a signal from good sense. It 

1310 stopped at the first check from good sense. Yet, though dis- 
ciplined to such obedience, it gave noble proofs of its vigor. 
In truth, much of Bacon's life was passed in a visionary 
world; amid things as strange as any that are described in the 
Arabian Tales, or amidst buildings more sumptuous than the 
palace of Aladdin. Yet in his magnificent day-dreams there 
was nothing wild, nothing but what sober reason sanctioned. 
He knew that all the secrets feigned by poets to have been 
written in the books of enchanters are worthless when com- 
pared with the mighty secrets which are really written in the 

1320 book of nature, and which, with time and patience, will be 



LORD BACON. 47 

read there. He knew that all the wonders wrought by all the 
talismans in fable were trifles compared to the wonders which 
might reasonably be expected from the philosophy of fruit; 
and that, if his words sank deep into the minds of men, they 
would produce effects such as superstition had never ascribed 
to the incantations of Merlin and Michael Scott. It was here 
that he loved to let his imagination loose. He loved to pic- 
ture to himself the world as it would be when his philosophy 
should, in his own noble phrase, ' ' have enlarged the bounds 
of human empire." 1330 

5. One of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of 
Bacon's mind is the order in which its powers expanded them- 
selves. With him the fruit came first and remained to the 
last ; the blossoms did not appear till late. In general, the de- 
velopment of the fancy is to the development of the judgment 
what the growth of a girl is to the growth of a boy. The 
fancy attains at an earlier period to the perfection of its 
beauty, its power, and its fruitfulness ; and, as it is first to 
ripen, it is also first to fade. It has generally lost something 
of its bloom and freshness before the sterner faculties have 1340 
reached maturity; and is commonly withered and barren while 
those faculties still retain all their energy. It rarely happens 
that the fancy and the judgment grow together. It happens 
still more rarely that the judgment grows faster than the 
fancy. This seems, however, to have been the case with Ba- 
con. His boyhood and youth appear to have been singularly 
sedate. His gigantic scheme of philosophical reform is said 
by some writers to have been planned before he was fifteen, 
and was undoubtedly planned while he was still young. He 
observed as vigilantly, meditated as deeply, and judged as 1350 
temperately when he gave his first work to the world as at the 
close of his long career. But, in eloquence, in sweetness and 



1326. Merlin.— Known in poetry and song as the prince of enchanters. 
Allusion is made to him in the Faerie Queene, Scott's Kenilworth, Tenny- 
son's Idylls (" Vivien"), and in countless other writers. 

Michael Scott. — A mediaeval scholar and philosopher of the 13th cen- 
tury whose real history is obscure. He was regarded by the common 
people as a magician on account of his experiments in natural philoso- 
phy. 



48 LORD BACON. 

variety of expression, and in richness of illustration, his later 
writings are far superior to those of his youth. 

6. It is by the Essays that Bacon is best known to the mul- 
titude. The "Novum Organum" and the u De Augmentis" 
are much talked of, but little read. They have produced, in- 
deed, a vast effect on the opinions of mankind; but they have 
produced it through the operation of intermediate agents. 

1360 They have moved the intellects which have moved the world. 
It is in the Essays alone that the mind of Bacon is brought 
into immediate contact with the minds of ordinary readers.* 
There he opens an exoteric school and talks to plain men, in 
language which everybody understands, about things in which 
everybody is interested. He has thus enabled those who must 
otherwise have taken his merits on trust to judge for them- 
selves; and the great body of readers have, during several 
generations, acknowledged that the man who has treated with 
such consummate ability questions with which they are fa- 

1370 miliar may well be supposed to deserve all the praise bestowed 
on him by those who have sat in his inner school. 

7. Without any disparagement to the admirable treatise 
"De Augmentis, " we must say that, in our judgment, Bacon's 
greatest performance is the first book of the ' ' Novum Orga- 
num." All the peculiarities of his extraordinary mind are 
found there in the highest perfection. Many of the aphorisms, 
but particularly those in which he gives examples of the influ- 
ence of the idola, show a nicety of observation that has never 
been surpassed. Every part of the book blazes with wit, but 

1380 with wit which is employed only to illustrate and decorate 
truth. No book ever made so great a revolution in the mode 
of thinking, overthrew so many prejudices, introduced so 
many new opinions. Yet no book was ever written in a less 
contentious spirit. It truly conquers with chalk and not with 



* " I am old-fashioned enough to admire Bacon, whose remarks are taken in 
and assented to by persons of ordinary capacity, and seem nothing very 
profound. But when a man comes to reflect and observe, and his faculties 
enlarge, he then sees more in them than he did at first, and more still as he 
advances farther — his admiration of Bacon's profundity increasing as he 
himself grows intellectually. Bacon's wisdom is like the seven-league boots, 
which would fit the giant or the dwarf, except only that the dwarf cannot 
take the same stride in them."— Archbishop Whately. 



LOUD BACOtf. 49 

steel. Proposition after proposition enters into the mind, is 
received not as an invader, but as a welcome friend, and, 
though previously unknown, becomes at once domesticated. 
But what we most admire is the vast capacity of that intellect 
which, without effort, takes in at once all the domains of 
science, all the past, the present, and the future, all the errors x 39o 
of two thousand years, all the encouraging signs of the passing 
times, all the bright hopes of the coming age. 

8. Cowley, who was among the most ardent, and not among 
the least discerning, followers of the new philosophy, has, in 
one of his finest poems, compared Bacon to Moses standing on 
Mount Pisgah. It is to Bacon, we think, as he appears in the 
first book of the "Novum Organum," that the comparison 
applies with peculiar felicity. There we see the great Law- 
giver looking round from his lonely elevation on an infinite 
expanse; behind him a wilderness of dreary sands and bitter moo 
waters in which successive generations have sojourned, always 
moving, yet never advancing, reaping no harvest and building 
no abiding city; before him a goodly land, a land of promise, 
a land flowing with milk and honey. While the multitude be- 
low saw only the flat sterile desert in which they had so long 
wandered, bounded on every side by a near horizon, or diver- 
sified only by some deceitful mirage, he was gazing from a far 
higher stand on a far lovelier country, following with his eye 
the long course of fertilizing rivers, through ample pastures, 
and under the bridges of great capitals, measuring the distances w° 
of marts and havens, and portioning out all those wealthy 
regions from Dan to Beersheba. 

His Character. — 1. It is painful to turn back from contem- 
plating Bacon's philosophy to contemplate his life. Yet with- 
out so turning back it is impossible fairly to estimate his pow- 
ers. He left the University at an earlier age than that at 
which most people repair thither. While yet a boy he was 
plunged into the midst of diplomatic business. Thence he 
passed to the study of a vast technical system of law, and 

1393. Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667).— An accomplished and influential 
writer. He was highly regarded among the writers of his time both as a 
poet and an essayist. 



50 LORD BACOtf. 

1420 worked his way up through a succession of laborious offices to 
the highest post in his profession. In the mean time he took 
an active part in every parliament; he was an adviser of the 
crown; he paid court with the greatest assiduity and address 
to all whose favor was likely to be of use to him ; he lived 
much in society; he noted the slightest peculiarities of char- 
acter and the slightest changes of fashion. Scarcely any man 
has led a more stirring life than that which Bacon led from six- 
teen to sixty. Scarcely any man has been better entitled to be 
called a thorough man of the world. The founding of a new 

1430 philosophy, the imparting of a new direction to the minds of 
speculators, this was the amusement of his leisure, the work 
of hours occasionally stolen from the woolsack and the coun- 
cil board. This consideration, while it increases the admira- 
tion with which we regard his intellect, increases also our re- 
gret that such an intellect should so often have been unworth- 
ily employed. He well knew the better course, and had, at one 
time, resolved to pursue it. "I confess," said he in a letter 
written when he was still young, " that I have as vast con- 
templative ends as I have moderate civil ends." 

1440 2. Had his civil ends continued to be moderate, he would 
have been, not only the Moses, but the Joshua of philosophy. 
He would have fulfilled a large part of his own magnificent 
predictions. He would have led his followers, not only to the 
verge, but into the heart of the promised land. He would not 
merely have pointed out, but would have divided the spoil. 
Above all, he would have left, not only a great, but a spotless 
name. Mankind would then have been able to esteem their 
illustrious benefactor. We should not then be compelled to 
regard his character with mingled contempt and admiration, 

M50 with mingled aversion and gratitude. We should not then 
regret that there should be so many proofs of the narrowness 
and selfishness of a heart the benevolence of which was yet 
large enough to take in all races and all ages. We should not 
then have to blush for the disingenuousness of the most de- 
voted worshiper of speculative truth, for the servility of the 
boldest champion of intellectual freedom. We should not then 
have seen the same man at one time far in the van, and 



LORD BACON. 51 

at another time far in the rear of his generation. We 
should not then be forced to own that he who first treated 
legislation as a science was among the last Englishmen who m^ 
used the rack; that he who first summoned philosophers 
to the great work of interpreting nature was among the 
last Englishmen who sold justice. And we should con- 
clude our survey of a life placidly, honorably, beneficently 
passed "in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, 
and profitable inventions and discoveries," * with feeling very 
different from those with which we now turn away from the 
checkered spectacle of so much glory and so much shame. 

* From a letter of Bacon to Lord Burleigh. 



TEST QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

1. Give some details of Macaulay's early life. 

2. Anecdotes illustrating his precocity. 

3. Incidents showing his early love for books and reading. 

4. His career at Cambridge University. 

5. Incidents which led Macaulay to write his essay on Milton. 

6. Mention the subjects of Macaulay's most important essays. 

7. What are the chief characteristics of these celebrated essays? 

8. What political honors were conferred upon Macaulay? 

9. His appointment to an office in India and his residence in 
that country. 

10. His return to England and subsequent career in Parliament. 

11. What fine martial ballads were published in 1842? 

12. When was his History first published? — its success? 

13. Give some details of the scope of this work. 

14. What can you tell of Macaulay's career as a public speaker? 

15. The death of the great historian in 1859? 

16. Macaulay's style — its prominent characteristics? 

17. What adverse criticisms have been made on his writings? 

18. How will you account for the remarkable popularity of ail 
that Macaulay has written? 

19. Personal life of Macaulay — its chief characteristics? 

20. Incidents and anecdotes to illustrate the same. 

21. When was the essay on Bacon written, and for what peri- 
odical? 

22. In a general way, state what opinion Macaulay had of this 
essay. 

23. Does Macaulay's view of Bacon coincide with that of most 
of the best writers on this subject? 

24. How does the essay compare with others by Macaulay, both 
in learning and in style? 

25. What evidence is there from the essay itself to prove the 
author's statement that he bestowed great care upon its composi- 
tion? 



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57 Tennyson's In Memoriam. 

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